Decisive Encounters. Roberto Badenas

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      31 . “Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, ch. 11)

      32 . Luke 4:13 states that the devil left him “until an opportune time.”

      33 . “Temptation once resisted will give power to more firmly resist the second time; every new victory gained over self will smooth the way for higher and nobler triumphs. Every victory is a seed sown to eternal life.” (Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 1889, p. 120)

      34 . Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, Madrid: Ediciones Siruela, 2007, p. 376.

      1

      The Meeting

      The peacefulness of the afternoon falls upon the hollow of the valley. The shadows stretch their embrace through the crossroads of the ford and slowly ascend the steep hillsides. The chirping of the cicadas begins to subside; and from the ponds—behind the oleanders in bloom—the croaking of frogs rises in clear notes.

      The quavering bleats of flocks returning to their pens slowly fade. From the bramble patches and myrtles arrive the humming sounds of bees, intent on the sickly sweet remains of the last berries. Below, beyond the murmur of the sugar cane fields and the quagmires bristling with reed beds and papyruses, the Jordan meanders, loamy and green.

      Two young men wait impatiently, at the crossroads, under the precarious coolness of the willows.

They have arrived at this mystical place, following many other seekers of God. It could be said that at the bottom of this depression—steeped in history, the most sunken in the world, in the void left by major cities struck down by the divine fire1—the distance from heaven pains the most; consequently, the nostalgia of drawing closer to Him is felt the most.

      From their precarious observatory, the travelers spot, mounted on the last cliff of the desert, the monastery thereon built by the Essenes, facing the Dead Sea, in order to always maintain, in the monks’ sight, the accursed effects of sin, and to distance themselves from it with their ascetic rites.

      If Andrew and his friend were to decide, they could knock on its door that very afternoon and request their admission in the community, giving in to recent temptations. A novice of their age, proudly draping himself in his white robe, had extolled, with a serious frown and an ardent look, the purifying virtues of monastic spirituality:

To rid ourselves of evil, we must withdraw from the world. There is no possible salvation in Israel. Do not listen to its apostate clergy: it deceives you. We are the faithful remnant, those who live by the sanctity that the divine judgment demands. Your corrupt Teachers of the law do not hold the truth. The Teacher of Justice is the only one who teaches it. Keeping its precepts2 is the only path to enter into the kingdom of God.

      The young man seemed to be very convinced. Yet, is it not that the kingdom of God can be accessed only by renouncing the risks of life in society? Is it not of cowards to flee from danger? His friends the Zealots, with whom they sometimes met in secrecy, stressed upon them almost the opposite:

      We must impose the kingdom of God and build it ourselves, breaking by any means necessary the yoke of the idolatrous oppressor. We have to fight with our own hands, with our own strength, and even with our own blood if necessary, against the enemies of the Lord of hosts if we want the Messiah to come to free us from Rome and from all the evils.

      Their friends, the Zealots, were also very sincere and fanatical, brave up to the sacrifice. One of them had died as a martyr, crucified for being a terrorist a short time ago.

      Whom to follow? That is the big question that torments the idealist minds of the young travelers. Which path leads to salvation . . . that of a fight to the death against the adversaries of God, or that of isolation from the world?

      Foolish dilemma, reply the Sadducees with haughtiness. Heaven belongs only to God. For mortals there is no more “kingdom” than what they get hold of for themselves. The Almighty metes out blessings and punishments in this life because there is no other. He rewards or sanctions according to His sovereign will, without us always knowing the reason for his decisions.

      To which the Pharisees claim:

      Grave heresy. The Torah clearly indicates the route to follow: God saves through observance of His law. Divine justice will inexorably reveal itself in the coming judgment regarding your conduct in this life. Your actions save or condemn you. After the inevitable death, the supreme Judge decides if the scales of your good actions, prayers, fastings, and charities, surpass the weight of your sins.

      Perplexed at this crossroads of paths, the young men do not know what direction to take. That is why they have traveled from afar to here, the ford of Bethabara, driven by their uncertainty and by their absolute thirst, to hear the new prophet in person. Compelled by his message, they have answered his call:

      Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens approaches, and demonstrate through your fruits the conversion of your hearts. Let God cleanse you of your past, being reborn, through baptism, into a new life. Only God can save us from ourselves and transform us through his power. I baptize you with water, to mark the breaking of a new birth, but He who comes after me will submerge you in the atmosphere of the spirit.

      They have heard it from his lips. To quench their spiritual thirst, the restless travelers have to steer their course toward a new guide, and such is not the Baptist.

Are you not the awaited Messiah? his opponents had asked.3

      No, I am not. I am but a voice calling in the desert to prepare the way for him. The Teacher who is to come is your guide. Moreover, He is the proclaimed Lamb of God, the only one capable of saving the world from its sins and of opening the gates of heaven for us all.

      The clue does not seem very clear, but the travelers already know that the key to what they are seeking is not there, in the ford of the Jordan, neither in the caves of Qumran, nor in the temple of Jerusalem; and neither in the daggers of the Sicarii nor in the classrooms of the Teachers of the law. The course to follow will be indicated by the promised Savior.

      Their restlessness is incited when the prophet points out in the distance, with his gaunt right hand, a wayfarer walking down the side of the mountain:

      At last, there He comes. Follow him wherever He guides you.

      Seized with emotion, the young men impatiently draw near to encounter Him. That man who approaches whistling, with an angular, sun-tanned face, is the Teacher whom they must follow.

      But the wanderer is unaware that He is expected and continues without stopping.

      Although His pace is steady, He does not appear to be in a hurry, and the young men do not have any trouble catching up to Him. Intimidated by His proximity, they do not dare to address Him and walk behind Him, feeling inhibited. They follow Him so closely that the traveler notices their presence, stops while smiling, and with a deep but welcoming voice, asks them:

What do you seek?4

      The young men, taken aback, do not manage to reply, because they do not know how to articulate what they seek. They feel disoriented, confused, dissatisfied with their СКАЧАТЬ